JAY — Selectpersons agreed Monday that it wouldn’t hurt to hear what a cell tower company has to say about putting up more towers on the town’s recreation lot behind the high school.

SBA contacted Town Manager Ruth Cushman to see if the town is interested in having more communication towers installed on the lot, she told the board.

Town property is leased to the company for one tower on the lot. All proceeds from the lease go into a recreation reserve account. The company pays the town $600 to $650 a month, Cushman said. If more towers are installed that lease money would also go into the recreation account, she said.

Chairman Steve McCourt said the only way he would be interested is if the company put it next to the one already there.

“I don’t think it would hurt” to bring a proposal to the board, Vice Chairman Justin Merrill said.

Selectperson Tom Goding said the new towers he has seen blend in with the trees.

The board agreed that the company could walk the land and bring a proposal to the board for consideration.

In other business Monday, selectpersons appointed Barry McDonald to one of two vacant positions on the Ordinance Review Committee.

Cushman told the board that McDonald was right up front and told her he is only interested in working on the development of an animal control ordinance because he raises dogs.

“He does not want an ordinance that restricts barking dogs because he raises them,” Cushman said.

All of the committee’s meetings are open to the public. Once an ordinance is put together it has to go to a public hearing and then to residents for a vote.

It’s not like McDonald, being on the committee, will stop an ordinance from moving forward, Merrill said. He didn’t like that he only wants to be on the committee for the one ordinance, he said.

In another matter, McCourt and Merrill said they have not had a chance to walk the property to see if a right of way to Parker Pond would be feasible off the East Jay Road. It is wet, Merrill said.

A property owner has told them that if the town built a right of way to the town property on the waterfront, he would give them access over his property.

The town foreclosed on a property earlier this year for outstanding taxes.

Cushman told the board that another resident, Bill Caldwell, who was at the meeting, is interested in buying the town property and he would give the town a right of way to the pond.

The issue will not be ready for discussion until Merrill and McCourt walk the property to see if a right of way could be built, Cushman said.

Public Works foreman John Johnson estimated previously that building a right of way to the pond would cost $100,000 to $200,000.

dperry@sunjournal.com

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